So, we went all patriotic on RuPaul last night. Which was…interesting? I’m not sure it was fun, but you know, they can’t all be fun. Should be, but reality tv doesn’t work that way. And Shangela is getting show villain(ness) realness. I mean, not helping sweet Yara? Really?

The ladies had to decorate (read “bling-out”) black bras for the mini-challenge. Manila won because she cut holes in her bra and made them look sort of gunlike. Alexis used multi-colored beads in a pretty pattern, Yara did asymmetrical in silver – one striped, one more evenly colored, which was creative and fun. Both Carmen and Raja did pretty patterns – I liked Carmen’s a touch more, even though I thought Raja was (relatively) restrained and elegant. Shangela, on the other hand, had one cup with yellow beading that did not stay one and the other with silver and RuPaul’s name because she wanted to represent RuPaul and couldn’t. Shangela’s was, to put it bluntly, SAD.

Main challenge was to do an entertaining, patriotic, support our troops PSA, saying why they loved America. And Yara asked the resident stand-up expert, Shangela, for help. She’d helped Shangela with her make-up earlier, so it wasn’t unreasonable. Except Miss Shangela would not do it. She said it was because Yara was already funny, which she is, but still. Rude.

What did American mean to the girls? Raja grew up seeing America as the land of candy bars and freedom (she was born in the USA but grew up in Indonesia). For Carmen, it’s her cousins in the military, but also her fight to be a drag queen and be with her husband. For Yara, it’s her father serving in Iraq. Shangela’s mom also served in Desert Storm and Bosnia. Alexis has an exboyfriend serving. Manila likes to eat – she meant it was that the diversity of American food shows what a melting pot this nation is.

They were told to wear their most patriotic outfits to the runway – where Cheryl Tiegs and Johnny Weir were the judges. Raja wants to lick Johnny. 🙂

As the outfits are judged, we also see bits of their PSAs as finished.

Manila came out in a flapper dress made of fake hundred dollar bills, plus credit card earrings. It was funny and clever. Her PSA had her in Daisy Dukes, a red bra and a blond wig. She looked like a bleached Katy Perry (yes, I know Katy’s a natural blonde.) She had food and fart jokes. But all the PSAs were pretty lame, I thought.

Carmen did pretty again – a white gown with red and blue stars, and beads down the back, her wig in pin-up style. She tried to have a heartfelt PSA in her blue and white catsuit. She is very covered for a change. She called Dita von Teese meets 1950s.

Alexis wore her ex-boyfriends dress Marine jacket, which she bedazzled, over a long skirt. She wore a flag patterned jumpsuit for her PSA, and did a lot of dancing and “bam!ing”.

Yara Sofia wore a traditional white Puerto Rican dress for a dance called the Bomba. Under it, she wore a sequined Puerto Rican flag leotard. Her PSA was how free and herself she felt.

Shangela wore a white dress she lined and sashed with red lam, and looked bad and cheap. She wore a star-spangled leotard for her PSA (star-spangled is a running theme), with a tail and a maribou cape and was trying to be funny.

Raja had everyone gasp as she came on, dressed as a Rock’n’roll Native American, complete with elaborate headdress. She did Betty Page pin-up with a torpedo bra for her PSA, but was trying for pretty, not funny, and ended up stiff.

Alexis won, and Yara and Carmen were bottom two. Shangela should have been. They lipsynced to Micky in Spanish, and both were allowed to stay. I know this was planned.

Untucked was different without Delta to play off Raja. I think the average IQ dropped. Manila doesn’t like being in the Asian box, although she DID put herself there, and Alexis doesn’t like that Carmen identifies as Puerto Rican even though she was born in New Jersey and can’t speak Spanish. And Yara did not like that the judges compared her national dress to a Snuggie, once she learned what a Snuggie was. She also did not like how Shangela treated her. I don’t Yara will ever be a Heather, but I also don’t think she’s going to hang with Shangela anymore.

And the girls in the long, loose skirts – Raja and Alexis, sat like boys because they didn’t have to cross their legs and act like ladies to hide…anything. 🙂

I think we’re going to see a Raja/Shangela finale. Which will be the only time we see Raja lipsync for her life. And she will wipe the floor with Shangela.

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About mamadeb

I'm a devoted fan of Adam Lambert, but also of cooking, knitting, science fiction and pretty anything pop culture. I'm @_mamadeb on Twitter.